Baldur's Gate 3 has an expansive world map, but just how big is it? Baldur's Gate 3 is the latest major release in a category that's almost always been synonymous with giant, boundary- and PC performance-pushing open-world maps: the medieval fantasy RPG genre. Uniquely, though, the Baldur's Gate series is set in Dungeons & Dragons 5e's only official, canon setting: the Forgotten Realms, and more specifically, on the continent of Faerûn. As the premiere DnD-based video game adaptation, Baldur's Gate 3 puts an emphasis on player choice, and that includes free exploration.
This is the first proper Baldur's Gate entry in 23 years; the last was Baldur's Gate 2, released in 2000. Baldur's Gate 3 goes a long way toward bringing the decades-old franchise up to modern standards: gorgeous new graphics, with both a top-down and a third-person mode; truly turn-based, DnD-style combat; and all the new races, classes, and other adjustments added in the latest edition of DnD, which came out in between Baldur's Gate 2 and 3. Of course, with new standards for PC performance, Baldur's Gate 3 is able to render a far larger map than any of its predecessors in the series. But its exact size is a more complicated question.
How Big The Baldur's Gate 3 Map Is
Simply put, the world map in Baldur's Gate 3 is huge. It encomes a large, horizontal slice of the continent of Faerûn, spanning nine major cities and settlements with a myriad of smaller villages and points of interest scattered in between. There's also a large river running through it - the River Chionthar, to be precise.
And that's just the main map, called The Wilderness - there are also two slightly smaller areas that make up the rest of the Baldur's Gate 3 journey. These are The Nautiloid, a small, town-sized flying ship that serves as the game's tutorial area, and The Underdark, a far larger underground area similar to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Depths. Together, these effectively double the size of the game's map. All in all, the world map of Baldur's Gate 3 takes up a decent chunk of the continent, and it's fair to say it's the size of a country on the larger side of medium.
Baldur's Gate 3 is, for the most part, open world. Naturally, certain areas are closed off until the player has progressed far enough in the story. However, there's still a ton of freedom when it comes to exploration. There are multiple ways to reach different plot points and areas of progression. Player choice goes beyond a simple list of dialogue choices in Baldur's Gate 3 - it extends to everything the player does, including where they decide to explore.
How Big The Baldur's Gate 3 Map Is Compared To Other Fantasy RPGs
Skyrim is the usual baseline for fantasy RPG map size comparisons. After all, its map is still impressively large today, including the entirety of a country within its borders. The surface map in Baldur's Gate 3 seems to be close to, or maybe about 1.5 times the size of Skyrim's. They each contain nine major cities and settlements dotted around their respective maps of average-sized video game countries. Combine the surface with The Underdark, though, and Baldur's Gate 3 is roughly three times Skyrim's size. Skyrim, however, is less linear; with its level scaling, players can basically pick any direction and wander anywhere from the very beginning of the game.
Skyrim also discourages the use of horses, and there are no ridable vehicles in the vanilla version of the game. As a result, Bethesda kept the areas between Skyrim's major destinations relatively small and made player characters walk quickly to accommodate free exploration. Baldur's Gate 3 only has two modes of transportation: walking and fast travel, and characters walk at a leisurely pace. Therefore, it can take much longer to get from point A to point B when traveling the roads in Baldur's Gate 3.
Another appropriate comparison to Baldur's Gate 3 (and not just in map size) is Dragon Age. Historically, these games have had similar gameplay, and have offered players a near-equivalent degree of freedom in deciding how the story unfolds. Dragon Age games, however, are far more linear - many areas have to be unlocked before players can enter them. Compared to Dragon Age: Inquisition, the most recent game in the series, Baldur's Gate 3 is probably about four times the size of its world map.
How Big The Baldur's Gate 3 World Map Is Compared To Baldur's Gate 2
It's been 20 years since Baldur's Gate 2, so naturally, the capabilities of the average gaming PC have increased by a remarkable degree. Baldur's Gate 2 was set in and around the city of Amn, which functioned as the game's hub area from which several branching paths gradually became available. It really only took up a small slice of Faerûn - probably about the size of England's lower third, but not open-world and all rendered in an isometric perspective. Baldur's Gate 3 is far bigger and more open - it appears to be roughly three times the size of Baldur's Gate 2.
Baldur's Gate 3 also had an early access mode that included its first act, taking place entirely within a small chunk on the western end of its map. For reference, the full game's map is about three times the size of the early access area. However, the eastern half of the map is far denser, containing more major cities and settlements than the western half by far. That's also where the latter two acts of the game take place. Therefore, while the full map is about three times the size of the early access map, the full game of Baldur's Gate 3 takes almost seven times as long to beat.
Baldur's Gate 3 Is Big - But More Importantly, It's Condensed
Discussions about which game has the biggest map tend to miss a crucial point. Even the biggest-ever game map can feel small, empty, and dead if points of interest are spread too thin, or exploration is dull and repetitive. Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't feel big because of its scale alone; it's the volume and variety of activity that colors in the map. There's something to do around every corner, so there's no risk of boredom. Landscapes and scenery are varied, and every new location is unique. It's simply not enough to make a video game map big - it needs to be full of things for players to do to make it feel like a complete, expansive world.
Whatever the exact size of Baldur's Gate 3, it's undeniable that its world map is enormous. It can easily take players hundreds of hours to see all it has to offer, which is only appropriate for a DnD-based video game. Its scale, length, and freedom can only be compared to an ever-expanding tabletop campaign championed by an ingenious DM, which makes Baldur's Gate 3 the perfect DnD video game.
